Anarchist Zine Archive

THE NINTH OF JULY

We arrived around ten, after the high-
way had already been shut down for
a few hours. We lingered on the off-ramp
as the police began taking away those who
were willing to submit to arrest, a refresh-
ingly small percentage of the blockaders.
The police then advanced on those who
would not submit, who began scrambling up
the tree-covered embankment to the street
above. This street, as well as the pedestrian
bridge over the highway, was held by protes-
tors, some of whom helped hold the police
off with volleys of rocks and fireworks.

Now that the police seemed to be moving
in to actually clear the freeway, it was an-
nounced by a protest marshal that we had

to leave the offramp or be arrested. It was
unclear if the person was actually affiliat-
ed with the organizers or simply self-ap-
pointed, although in reality all marshals
are self-appointed. Either way they act-
ed as an extension of police; who would
have left if the cops had said it themselves?

We headed up the ramp and down the
street to join the crowd by the bridge. As
they cleared the highway the police fired
off some smoke bombs; while this scared
away some protestors who mistook it for
tear gas it only further enraged those who
stayed. Shielded from view of the police by
the trees lining the embankment, people

began to rain stones down upon the cops,

»

July 9th, continued from pg 1.

with some taking advantage of the fact that we had the
higher ground to let fly chunks of concrete the size of
melons. During this time we took the opportunity to
hand out a few extra masks and explain the need to hide
one's identity while resisting. The barrage kept up for
five to ten minutes before someone with a megaphone
rallied people to march back to the Governor’s Mansion.

Contrary to the statements of cops and movement lead-
ers eager to excise the violent protestors from the “peace-
ful movement” that the cops claim to protect and the
leaders claim to represent, the rocks were mostly thrown
not by adventure-seeking whites but by pissed-off black
youth. Those who claim otherwise silence the legitimate
rage of those who fought back in addition to glossing
over the fact that throwing rocks is often an effective
strategy for resisting the police. What’s more, advancing
the narrative that violent protestors endanger the move-
ment clears the way for the police, the ones who actually
endanger us, to brutally repress any protestors they can
successfully label as violent without fear of retaliation
from the masses.

Despite the rebellious energy displayed by many, the
march back to the Governor’s Mansion was fairly un-
eventful. The windows of a few cars in the rich part of
town were smashed, but on the whole the residential
streets provided no targets for the crowd’s rage. Looking
back, with the cops tied up clearing the highway it might
have been smarter to continue one block past Summit,
the street the Mansion is on, to Grand, home to a stretch
of luxury shops and banks. Instead the march went down
Summit towards the Mansion. Just before we arrived, a
few officers monitoring the occupation received some
flying bottles. Many people screamed that attacking
cops would only incite violence but this clearly wasn't
the case, as the cops quickly fled. Trust me, there are very
few things as joyful as watching the pigs bolt in fear.

Here momentum quickly dissipated as people joined
the larger crowd listening to speeches denouncing the
violence that had occurred not an hour before. This oc-
currence illustrates an important point about the rela-
tionship between rebellious and less rebellious crowds
in these situations. At times it can be to the rebels’ ad-
vantage to blend in with a larger crowd of protestors, but
there is always the risk that in doing so the rebels will
loose the unity they had forged through fighting back
and find themselves alone, surrounded by people eager
to police their actions. A mass of a hundred rebels can
in some situations be much more effective than a mass
of a hundred rebels mixed in with a few hundred paci-
fists willing to facilitate repression. Feeling unsafe in this
space, we regrouped and headed home.

RESISTANCE IN RONDO

Following the highway shutdown of July 9th many
noted that the action took place in the heart of
Rondo, an historic African American neighbor-
hood gutted by the construction of 1-94 in the late
’50s and early ‘60s. Wanting to know more, we did
some digging into the history of the neighborhood
and the ways it has resisted white supremacy and
the police through the years.

Rondo stands on what was once the land of Cana-
dian immigrant Joseph Rondeau, who bought it in
the late 1800’s to escape the racist abuse directed
towards him and his mixed Canadian-Native wife
in other parts of St. Paul and later opened it to oth-
ers in order to establish a community that would
welcome all. By the 1950’s it was a thriving hub of
African-American culture.

Then came Eisenhower’s interstate system. Inspired
by the Autobahn of Nazi Germany, the interstate
system was explicitly created to allow for the rapid
transit of military equipment and personnel, facili-
tate evacuations in case of nuclear war, streamline
America’s increasingly car-reliant economy and
buoy the nation’s corporations through the expect-
ed post-war recession. In the Twin Cities and across
the country the interstate invariably snaked its way
through poor black and brown neighborhoods, de-
stroying much of the relative autonomy residents
had been able to establish. Nationally one million
people, roughly 1 out of every 200, were displaced
within the first 20 years of interstate construction.
In St. Paul the construction of 1-94 displaced l/7th
of the city’s blacks and destroyed 3/4ths of black-
owned businesses, with less than half of those dis-
placed receiving assistance from the city in finding
new housing. Those who were able to remain in
Rondo found the social fabric of the neighborhood
irreparably torn. The yawning abyss of the highway
cut the neighborhood in two, in addition to run-
ning right down the former path of Rondo Avenue,
where most of the community’s gathering spaces
had been located.

Tragically there was little coordinated resistance to
the highway, with many not realizing the implica-
tions the project had for their neighborhood until
half of the families had already been evicted. This
was before the Black Power movement began to

»

2

MASK UP: HOW & WHY

The events of the July 9th highway shutdown
were inspiring, to say the least. Those who
struck back against the police state inflicted sig-
nificant financial damages on the city of St. Paul
and the businesses that rely on 1-94, as well as in-
juring 21 cops. Headlines the next day juxtaposed
this number with the 102 arrests made that night to
imply that the violence directed against the police
did not go unpunished. However, the vast majority
of those arrests were either negotiated surrenders by
pacifists among the highway blockaders or misde-
meanor citations issued hours after the shutdown
was over. As it stands now only one person is fac-
ing felony charges stemming from the shutdown.
The fact that there were many more who fought
back that night and got away with it shows that it
is possible to put the police on the defensive with-
out resorting to suicidal lone wolf attacks such as
the recent ones in Dallas and Baton Rouge. How-
ever, one person facing felony charges is still one
too many, and that number could easily have been
higher had the police been only marginally more
prepared. Many people engaged in a variety of risky
activities without taking basic precautions to con-
ceal their identity. While the police were temporari-
ly driven out of the streets surrounding the highway
there were still cameras present, as well as pacifist
enforcers eager to impose their own tactics upon
those with differing ideas of how best to oppose the
police. Nekima Levy-Pounds, the influential leader
of NAACP-Minneapolis, stated in a speech at the
Governor’s Mansion following the shutdown that
“I ain’t no snitch, but if I see you smashing things
I’m running to the 5-0.” With this in mind we offer
the following reflections and fashion tips for today’s
security-minded rebel.

HOW

The first order of business is to cover your face. A
bandana will work, but a t-shirt is better. Simply put
it around your head as if you were putting it on, tie
the sleeves together behind your head and pull it up
to just below your eyes, covering as much as possi-
ble. Combine with a hoodie and/or stocking cap to
completely cover your face. Another important point
is that the more similarly-dressed people there are,
the harder it tends to be for police to get charges to
stick to any one of them. For this reason black is the
preferred color for masks and protest-wear in gen-
eral, as it is one of the most common clothing colors
and it makes us look fabulous. Beyond the mask it
is best to stick with plain clothes that can't be easily
tied to your everyday style, such as a simple hood-
ie and jeans combo. If something could be used to
identify you, cover it up or leave it at home. That
means tattoos, hair, shoes, bags and other distinctive
accessories. Glasses are not ideal but you definitely
do not want to have contacts in if the cops bring out
pepper spray or tear gas, so wear them if you need
them and ditch them if you can manage.

In addition to having your all-black ensemble ready
to go, you will generally want to wear something in-
conspicuous when entering and exiting areas of con-
flict. Avoid changing in sight of cops, cameras and
people you don’t know or trust. A change of clothes
is also crucial in case the cops start shooting marker
rounds, little pellets that hurt like hell and leave a
colored stain wherever they hit. If you are tagged
by one of these, ditch the marked clothes as soon as
possible, as police use marker rounds in situations
where they have lost control, tagging individuals to
send snatch squads after once control has been re-
imposed. In fact, much of the state’s case against the
person facing felony charges from the night of the

3

»

ANYONE BUT TRUMP?

With the conventions over and election season
moving right along, we’ve seen a renewed urgency
around the imperative to make sure that anyone except
Donald Trump is elected. Trump’s presidency is present-
ed to us as a doomsday scenario that must be avoided
at all costs, even if that cost is voting for someone like
Hillary Clinton. Yet the fact is that Clinton’s policies are
Trump’s with a softer touch. There is no alternative in
electoral politics - whether Hillary Clinton or Jill Stein.

There are two differences between Trump and other pol-
iticians which make his campaign remarkable. The first
is that he is blunt about
his oppressive positions:
making blatantly rac-
ist calls for deportations
while Hillary attempts to
sell her immigration pol-
icies as “humanitarian,”
despite the fact that they
will still lead to a simi-
larly massive amount of
attacks on migrants, just
as Obama’s policies have.

Let’s not forget that
Obama has deported

2.5 million people, more „ — , — „ . . . . , — . — „ . _

11 stolen Irump signs burning outside the Convention Center

than any president before August 2016

him. Trump is simply the

most flagrant of the candidates; in reality they all share
an interest in the perseverance of the status quo.

The second difference is that Trump’s campaign has mo-
bilized disparate organizations on the far-right and giv-
en them space to recruit and build. Militia groups have
been prominent at Trump rallies and the white national-
ist Traditionalist Workers Party was spotted at his cam-
paign events early on. At the Republican National Con-
vention in Cleveland countless different far-right groups
were present. We’ve already seen how this campaign has
encouraged the far-right in terms of public organizing;
the KKK have attempted two high-profile rallies this
year in Anaheim and Stone Mountain, while the Tra-
ditionalist Worker’s Party organized what was supposed
to be a pro-Trump demonstration in Sacramento. All of
these and more were fiercely confronted by anti-fascists,
although some ended with serious injuries.

If we’re being honest, there’s nothing we can do to stop
the election of a president who will continue to oppress
us. We should focus on what we can do: prepare for the

potential of escalating conflict with far-right move-
ments. How would white supremacist groups react to
Trump’s victory in November? To his loss? What if the
loss is narrow, or a landslide? Victory celebrations could
become roving mobs attacking people perceived to be of
marginalized identities. As far fetched as this may seem,
it’s already a reality in Europe where the far-right has
capitalized on the refugee crisis to expand it’s power, in
addition to the historical precedent of lynch mobs in the
United States. Maybe the reality of a Trump presidency
that can’t deliver on his promises will lead to a depression

of right-wing organizing
as happens on the left
every time a Democrat
wins. Maybe a landslide
loss will bring many who
previously held faith in
the electoral system into
the fold of militant fas-
cist groups.

The point is that these
are the material scenar-
ios to explore and more
importantly, prepare for.
Preparation can include
anti-fascist propagan-
da, self defense training
(hand to hand, bladed,
and armed), building and strengthening ties with friends
and accomplices, keeping tabs on right-wing activity
and confronting it when the opportunity arises. Nothing
could be worse than facing a trained enemy after wast-
ing months registering voters to defeat Trump. There are
no solutions in the democratic system, it’s time to leave
politics behind and confront domination where it exists:
it’s material manifestations in our daily lives.

This will not begin nor end on election day. These con-
frontations are ongoing, flaring up during large battles at
white nationalist demonstrations and Trump rallies. To
stomp out fascism, we must be persistent in denying the
far-right a platform, denying them a voice, denying them
the ability to feel safe whenever they leave their house.
The convergences against white supremacist demon-
strations, the attacks on Donald Trump supporters at
his events, the waves of anti-racist vandalism, these and
more all coalesce as hostile conditions for our enemies.
What we’ve seen so far is inspiring, from Sacramento to
Chicago to here at home, but we need to get ready to
step things up a notch.

4

Mask Up, continued from pg 3.

9th appears to rest on the fact that when they were
picked up they were allegedly sporting a tag from
a round fired earlier in the night. It might suck to
ditch your favorite pair of jeans, but a new pair will
be cheaper than a court case.

WHY

There are many reasons you might choose to main-
tain anonymity at protests and other moments
of rupture, the most obvious being that many ef-
fective methods of resisting the brutalities of this
world, from white supremacy to patriarchy to the
destruction of the earth, fall outside the boundaries
of acceptable protest as defined by cops, politicians
and respectable citizens. Actions such as defend-
ing oneself from the police, attacking the assets of
white supremacist collaborators such as the private
prison-funding Wells Fargo and expropriating the
physical manifestations of the life stolen from us at
work (aka looting) all carry with them the possi-
bility of repression and are therefore best done as
anonymously as possible. However, there are many
other reasons you might choose to mask up. Even if,
for whatever reason, you do not personally engage
in confrontational actions masking up can respect
and protect the autonomy of those who do. As we
said before, the more masked people there are the
safer are those who are most likely to be targeted
by the police. Or maybe you don't come to the pro-
test expecting to engage in any risky behavior but
are overtaken by the course of events, as happens in
unpredictable situations. If you see a cop trying to
drag one of your friends away and have the oppor-
tunity to snatch them back, you will be happy you
masked up. And beyond your feelings on whether
or not outright confrontation with the cops is tacti-
cally sound in our current moment, the long histo-
ry of state repression in this country demonstrates
pretty conclusively that the state will mobilize all of
its power to crush any movement, peaceful or not,
that poses a real threat to its hegemony. You can be
sure that the police were filming the night of the
9th, in addition to monitoring the feeds of those
livestreaming; those who did not have their faces
covered are now that much more likely to have at-
tention paid to them in the future.

A word or two should also be said about white su-
premacists. Much has been made of the fact that the
white supremacists who shot five protestors outside

the 4th Precinct in Minneapolis last year were wear-
ing masks. Respectability- obsessed activists have
manipulated people's legitimate concerns about an-
other white supremacist attack to pressure anyone
wearing a mask, regardless of their political posi-
tion or their perceived race, into removing it, thus
consolidating their control over spaces of potential
rupture. What has been completely overlooked in
the discussion of this incident is the fact that in
addition to wearing masks the white supremacists
were filming everyone at the camp. These creeps
have shown a pattern of harassment against known
anti-racists both online and in real life, as evidenced
by the death threats received by the individual who
originally sounded the alarm that white suprema-
cists were using 4chan to plan an assault on the oc-
cupation. They used their camera as a weapon much
like the gun they would shoot soon after. Clearly
this is a conversation that should be happening be-
fore we are on the streets confronting the police and
the racists, but in our opinion the existence of white
supremacists is another reason to wear a mask, not
a reason to expose yourself. Perhaps in this sense
these white supremacists were being more realistic
than our side; they recognized that this is a conflict
between two irreconcilable forms of life and took
steps to protect themselves accordingly. It’s time we
do the same.

5

A CONVERSATION ON
THE SACRED STONE CAMP

A NightFall Editor: First off, can you tell us a little
bit about the Dakota Access Pipeline?

Anonymous Participant: The Dakota Access
Pipeline (DAPL), is owned by a Houston, Texas
based corporation called Energy Transfer Partners,
L.P which created the subsidiary Dakota Access
LLC that is building the pipeline. The DAPL, also
known as the Bakken Pipeline, is proposed to trans-
port 450,000 barrels of crude oil per day (which is
fracked and highly volatile) from the Bakken fields
of North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois. The current
route of the DAPL will cross over the Ogallala
Aquifer (one of the largest aquifers in the world)
and under the Missouri River twice (the longest riv-
er in the United States). Dakota Access has system-
atically failed to consult with tribes and conduct a
full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

In early August, Canadian pipeline giant Enbridge
announced that, along with Marathon Petroleum,
it will make a significant investment in the Bakken
Pipeline System, including the controversial Dako-
ta Access pipeline. As part of their statement, En-
bridge also noted that, “Upon successful closing of
the transaction, Enbridge and Marathon Petroleum
plan to terminate their transportation services and
joint venture agreements for the Sandpiper Pipeline
Project [a crude oil pipeline proposed for northern
Minnesota.]”

We know that this influx of resources from En-
bridge will only speed up the construction process.
NF: When and how was the Sacred Stone Camp es-
tablished?

AP: The camp is at the confluence of the Cannon-
ball and Missouri Rivers. This is important location
for the Mandan origin story as the place where they
came into the world after the great flood. Where
the two waters meet, created Iijyaq Wakhaiyagapi
Othi, spherical Sacred Stones (thus the colonizers'
term 'Cannon Ball River'), but after the Army Corp
of Engineers dredged and flooded the rivers in the
1950s, the flow has changed and Sacred Stones are
no longer produced. The camp is surrounded by his-

toric burial grounds, village grounds and Sundance
sites that would be directly impacted by this pipe-
line. The water of the Missouri River is essential to
life on the Standing Rock Reservation as well as all
of the nations downstream.

On April 1st, 2016, a group of over 200 supporters,
led by forty riders on horse, under the Lakota name,
“Chante tin’sa kinanzi Po”, which translates as "Peo-
ple, Stand with a Strong Heart!" left Fort Yates for
a thirty mile trek to the camp located just north of
Cannonball, North Dakota. They setup up tipis and
a sacred fire. This camp has swelled in the past two
months and has had multiple satellite camps across
the river on private as well as unceded land on both
sides of the river.

NF: What is daily life like in the camp?

AP: Cooking, cleaning, gathering and chopping
firewood and hanging out, especially around the
campfire sharing food largely defined camp life.
There are always families of all generations populat-
ing the camp. You can hear the people playing the
drum, giving the camp its own heartbeat. Stories
and memories are shared like water. Laughter and
life are not uncommon.

The reality of the situation is that the people have
been resisting the U.S. Empire and continuing
genocide for so long that the drones and military
surveillance flying above the camp the whole day
becomes almost forgettable; like living next to a wa-
terfall, the sound becomes a part of the landscape.
We do counter-surveillance, logging the enemies
movements. We can see all the pipeline construc-
tion equipment on the east side of the river.

Everyday there are prayers of resistance offered to
the water, earth and ancestors. Without the water
of life the camp and we would die.

NF: How have folks at the camp mobilized to stop the
pipeline thus far? Has it been solely a publicity cam-
paign/symbolic protest thus far or have folks directly
interfered with construction of the pipeline? Are there
discussions about tactics at the camp? Did these change
after the Army Corps of Engineers approved the pipe-

6

line crossing the river and/or after the arsons affecting
DAPL construction sites in Iowa? As I see it, the camp
and the arsons are complementary rather than conflict-
ing tactics for stopping the pipeline ; is this generally
how people feel at the camp or is there a range of opin-
ions on the matter?

AP: Like with any struggle, the people are not ho-
mogenous in thought and tactic. Much of the camp's
rhetoric is of the "Non-violent Direct Action" type.
Lock your arm to this piece of deconstruction
equipment and take a picture with a banner for
Facebook. But the Warrior Culture that is so rich
in Lakota memory seems to counter a lot of the lib-
eral, non-violent, NGO types. Comrades saw what
happened in Iowa, heard about the $1,000,000 in
damage and got in-
spired. I wouldn't say
that it was publicly
celebrated because
the camp’s tactic of
"Non-violence" is
the image they want
to perpetuate. Like
I said, it is a tactic...
not everyone thinks
that is what we need
to dogmatically stick
to. It is one thing to
use Non-Violence as
a rhetorical device in
corporate media to spread your inspirational actions
but it is another thing to preach it as your dogma in
your private circles and use it to stop material dam-
age to the infrastructure of ecocide. I see the former
being invoked much greater than the latter.

NF: How has the camp’s location on private land af-
fected its character? I would imagine the fact that it’s
on private land gives it some protection against police
but also means that if folks at the camp did engage in
any illegal activities the land owner would be in a vul-
nerable position with regards to legal repression. Is that
a concern? Does the person who owns the land have
more say than others about tactics or daily matters at the
camp? What does the decision making process look like?

AP: The question of "private land" is especially dif-
ficult to address when we factor in Reservations (or
what the U.S. Empire originally called and created
them for, Prison of War Camps). The reservations

are actually Federal Land. This means that local
county and state police cannot enter it. A huge rea-
son why Dakota Access (the company) is not build-
ing the pipeline thru the rez but literally a couple
hundred meters north of it.

When the reservations were created, imperial logic
of "borderization" was imposed; meaning, the com-
munal and nomadic lands used for Life were divid-
ed by borders: fencing for animal domestication, in-
visible lines drawn on maps to denote "property" i.e.
who owns what, etc. This fundamentally changed
people’s relation to land. And this set up the infra-
structure/hierarchies for surveillance and policing.
The camp exists in a way that resists this imperial
imposition. We share food and water without hes-
itation. We have no
leader. We all have
knowledge to share
and learn from each
other. We recognize
that the borders we
build between our-
selves are not "nat-
ural" anymore than
the flooding in the
1950s by the Army
Corps of Engi-
neers is. They do not
spread our Wildfire,
so we continue to

keep the eternal flame lit.

Instead of framing things in colonial terms of "legal/
illegal", it makes more sense at the camp to think in
terms of effectiveness; effectiveness of stopping this
genocidal project so the people can reclaim their
Way of Life.

NF: How can folks in the Twin Cities support the
camp and keep up with what’s going on?

AP: Unicorn Riot has been doing amazing media
coverage the entire duration of the camp and you
can can thoroughly updated by reading and watch-
ing their media at their website "www.unicornriot.
ninja" search for tag: DAPL

Visit the camps offical website: sacredstonecamp.org

From there you can donate to the legal defense,
see what supplies are needed, and more. Lastly,
come to the camp! Everybody is welcome.

7

The AgiTater Tot

Oh! I wonder what ) <""»

this is all about! /

O

Inside, Tot meets
Fred the French Fry

a 4

Tot discovers a squatted house after
escaping the factory in the last issue

V

Excited, Tot joins

The day of

the meeting.

the demo...

Several other potato-based friends are
discussing something important.

As the sun sets, Tot ponders their next move.

TOTttl

TACrot

Rondo, continued from pg 2.

take off, and moderate civil rights groups like the
NAACP and the Urban League did nothing to
challenge what was happening. One NAACP em-
ployee even served on the relocation board, “doing
the dirty work for the White man” in the words of
one former Rondo resident. However, one family’s
resistance stands out, foreshadowing the militancy
of the decades to come. George and Bertha Davis,
an elderly couple then living at the corner of Ron-
do and Farrington and the last family to be evicted,
barricaded themselves inside their house when the
cops came to kick them out and briefly held them
at bay with a shotgun, with George telling officers
that “if you force your way in here it will be the last
time you force anything.” Eventually, however, the
couple was convinced to surrender, at which point
they were taken outside and forced to watch as their
home of many years was destroyed. Nick Khaliq,
George and Bertha’s grandson who lived with them
at the time, recalled in an oral history interview that
for years after that day people would tell him how
they felt inspired by his grandparent’s resistance and
express regret that they had not fought back them-
selves.

As the 60’s bled into the 70’s and the neighborhood
deteriorated due to the highway and an associated
slum-clearance project, people began to take mat-
ters into their own hands. Khaliq recalled people
forming crews to approach racist business owners
and deliver an ultimatum: stop harassing people of
color or your business will go up in flames. Khaliq
also recounted multiple incidents of police officers
being fired upon when entering the neighborhood,
including the killing of Officer James Sackett on
May 22, 1970 by black revolutionaries. No convic-
tions were made in the case until 2006, when two
men were sentenced to life in prison for the murder,
despite the fact that the police could not produce
the murder weapon, an eyewitness or any physical
evidence tying them to the shooting. One defen-
dant successfully appealed his conviction in 2009
and was released a year later after pleading guilty to
a lesser charge.

8

GLOBAL NEWS OF RESISTANCE

PRISON STRIKE

On September 9th, 1971 about a thousand inmates in
New York rioted and seized control of the prison in the
well known Attica Prison uprising.

This year, prisoners across the country have called for a
prison strike to take place starting on September 9th.
Some inmates will refuse to work, some will refuse food,
and others will refuse to take orders. It could last days
or months, it could involve a few small acts of resistance
throughout the U.S. or widespread revolt.

This strike is taking place in the context of remarkable
unrest within the prison system. In March, two riots
took place over a single weekend in Holman Prison in
Alabama. At the same time, prisoners in Stillwater, MN
protested new seating arrangements in the chow- hall. In
April, prisoners across Texas went on strike, prompting
seven facilities to go on lockdown. Later that month,
thousands of inmates at multiple Michigan prisons re-
fused meals. As April came to a close, violence broke
out once again at Holman with two officers injured just
days before inmates at multiple Alabama prisons began
a work strike on May 1st. In Nebraska, hundreds of
thousands of dollars of damage was caused to the Sarpy
County Jail in what was described as a "mini-riot."

In June, dozens of prisoners began a hunger strike in
Wisconsin before being force fed by the facility. July
saw hunger strikes at Ely State Prison in Nevada, and
Lucasville Prison in Ohio. August began with a bang,
with the 1st seeing riots in Holman once again as well
as Vanderburgh County Jail in Indiana. Fires were set
multiple nights in a row in another Indiana county jail a
few days later.

This is only a small fragment of the resistance ramping
up inside prison walls, and every step of the way this re-
sistance has been supported by actions on the other side.
This includes call-in campaigns to support prisoners fac-
ing repression, writing graffiti to spread awareness about
the resistance, holding rallies and noise demonstrations
to break the isolation imposed by the state, and much
more.

In Minneapolis, postering and graffiti actions were
claimed in solidarity with the upcoming strike, and a
noise demo is scheduled for Saturday September 10th.
Meet up at Elliot Park at 8:00 PM before marching to
the youth jail just a few blocks away, and don't forget to
bring noisemakers!

More info: supportprisonerresistance.net

SQUAT THE WORLD

Squatting is a term for occupying vacant and abandoned
property. Some people are simply in need of housing,
others wish to subvert the capitalist idea of property —
for many, both! Why let a house rot only because the
owner is some bank or investment firm that is waiting
for the housing market to boom again? Instead, squat-
ters chose to take direct action and occupy the building.
Sometimes this results in a swift eviction, but in favor-
able conditions squats can last for years or even decades.
Due to obvious needs for secrecy, we'll likely never know
the true extent of successful squatting.

Outside of the U.S., squatted social centers have become
focal points of resistance against capitalism and the state.
An inspiring example is the Can Vies social center in
Barcelona; a 2014 attempt to evict and demolish it re-
sulted in several days of mass rioting in the neighbor-
hood, after which the building was rebuilt by hand.

More recently, the partial eviction of long-standing
East Berlin squat Rigaer 94 sparked intense rebel-
lion throughout Germany. After multiple raids in the
first few months of 2016, toward the end of June po-
lice cleared out one section of the building. In response,
squatters called for decentralized, creative actions under
the banner of a "Black July." This follows the legacy of
discouraging evictions by making them as expensive as
possible. These actions, which involved burning luxury
cars and attacking corporate storefronts, joined with
neighborhood self-organizing and mass demonstrations
sent a clear message: Rigaer 94 will stay occupied. It was
soon announced that the squatters had won in court by
the simple fact that their opponents did not show up —
rumor has it their cars were torched the night before.
While Berlin's resistance may be unique, the threat of
repression is not — squats around the globe are always
one bad day away from a police raid. Okupa Che in
Mexico City has been dealing with police attacks this
year which have only intensified since the Oaxaca upris-
ing which erupted in June. In late August, the Notara 26
squat set up for refugees in Athens, Greece was attacked
with molotov cocktails by fascists, one of many attacks
in an escalating conflict due in part to the so-called "mi-
grant crisis."

With all of this in mind, occupying a house here in the
Twin Cities seems like a daunting task. But take our
word for it — it can and has been done. Learn the laws,
go scout with trusted friends, and get cracking!

More info:

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en.squat.net

LOCAL ACTIONS

July 1st: A banner is dropped over the 1-94 in solidari-
ty with anti-fascists who shut down a neo-nazi rally in
Sacramento.

July 6th: A window is broken at the MPD 5th Precinct.

July 7th: After police shoot Philando Castile in Falcon
Heights (and the video of the aftermath goes viral) over
a hundred gather at the scene. The anger of the crowd
dissipates without incident, although many in the crowd
reconvene at the Governor's Mansion. Activist organi-
zations are able to mobilize quickly to gain control over
the protest, ensuring no disruptions occur. However, a
small American flag is burned and anti-police graffiti
appears on nearby buildings.

July 8th: A small group at the mansion occupation who
refuse to be pacified by the so-called community lead-
ers confront the police nearby who quickly flee, leaving
a squad car behind which is demolished by the crowd.
They then march to Grand Ave where a jewelry store is
attacked with rocks.

July 8th: Billboards are redecorated with anarchist and
anti-police graffiti.

July 9th: A mass march takes the freeway in St Paul,
followed by clashes with the police. Cops fire all sorts of
weapons at the crowd who respond with bottles, rocks,
and fireworks. Over twenty officers are injured through-
out the night.

July 10th: A small group gathers outside the jail where
the previous night's arrestees are being held, shooting off
fireworks and making noise in support of the prisoners.
July 11th: Graffiti is painted for the day of solidarity
with Sacramento anti-fascists and the week of solidarity
with anti-fascist prisoners in Russia.

July 20th: A window is broken at the new U.S. Bank
Stadium just days before the opening ribbon cutting.
July 25 th : A banner is dropped for the International Day
of Solidarity with Anti-Fascist Prisoners.

August 15th: Graffiti is painted in solidarity with the
uprising against police in Milwaukee, where hundreds
of rebels burned down business and attacked police after
cops killed yet another black man.

August 19th: Donald Trump holds a private fundraiser
in downtown. Outside, a large disruptive protest con-
fronts his supporters, rips apart their signs, and vandal-
izes the Convention Center where the fundraiser took
place.

August 22nd: Posters are wheatpasted and graffiti is
painted in solidarity with the September 9th prison
strike.

UPCOMING EVENTS

September 8th: Midwest Trans Prisoner Pen Pal Project
twice-monthly letter writing night. Write letters to and
potentially start friendships with queer/trans prisoners
in the Midwest. Boneshaker Books - 2002 23rd Ave S at
6:00 PM.

September 9th: Prisoners across the country plan to
begin striking against prison slavery. They're taking an
enormous risk — not just for their freedom, but for a
world without slavery or coercion Let's have their backs
on the outside as they take their stand on the inside by
taking action against prison society in all of its forms.

September 10th: Noise demonstration to the youth jail
in solidarity with the nationwide prison strike. Bring
noisemakers to send some love to everyone behind bars.
Elliot Park at 8:00 PM.

September 11th: Running Down The Walls 2016.
Run, walk, bike or just enjoy a picnic to raise money for
political prisoners .Lake Harriet Bandsh ell - 4135 WLake
Harriet Pkwy at 11:00 AM.

September 12th: Court support for Louis Hunter.
Louis is facing felony charges stemming from the July
9th protest and highway shutdown. Come show support
at his next court appearance. Ramsey County District
Court - 425 Grove St at 1:15 PM.

September 24th: Twin Cities Zine Fest 2016. From
free anarchist pamphlets to artsy journals, Zine Fest has
something for everyone. Walker Church - 3104 16th Ave
S at 11:00 AM.

October 6th: Montly prisoner letter writing night. Fill
out birthday cards and write letters to political prisoners.
Walker Church - 3104 16th Ave S at 7:00 PM.

October 31st: Halloween is a lovely time of year, one
with a remarkably rebellious history. From 15th century
witches to the 1980's Devil's Night arsons in Detroit,
it has always been a time of mischief and revolt. In the
present it's a day when it's totally chill to walk around in
groups while wearing disguises. What could go wrong?

LINKS

NIGHTFALL

nightfall, blackblogs. org

Conflict MN

conflictmn. blackblogs. org

TC Radical Calendar

tcradical. wordpress. com

It's Going Down

itsgoingdown. org

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